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From Russia With Lust Pt. 2

This is the second part of this story which originally ran on March 28, 2018.

Up to this point, the only person who meaningfully connects the American mafia to the Trump-Russia affair is Donald Trump, himself. Trump’s connections to the New York-based predominately Italian-American mafia are well-documented. On the Ukrainian side, there are rumors of Russian mafia or Bratva (“brotherhood”) connections to the Trump-Russia affair, such as a diplomatic cable that claimed Dmytro Firtash – 45% owner of RosUkrEnergo – was in business with Semyon Mogilevich, one of the FBI’s most wanted crime lords.

Yet there may be another link between the Trump-Russia affair and organized crime that runs straight through Cleveland, Ohio. A high-powered lobbyist named Ed Kutler, who was born in Cleveland and maintains strong ties to his birth city, has been swept up in the Mueller probe. Mercury, the company for which he served as Managing Director for